HOW TO BE A KOREAN WOMAN

From the Artistic Director

Dear Friends of Theater J,

Welcome back to the theater! I hope you all had a wonderful summer and are ready for an exciting theater season. We’re starting this season by welcoming back an extraordinary artist, Sun Mee Chomet.

After the sold-out run of How To Be a Korean Woman in January, we knew we had to bring Sun Mee back so more people could experience her powerful story and tour de force performance. (And those who wanted to return could bring a friend!)

Last year, we partnered with some incredible local organizations, such as KAMA DC and the LUNAR Collective. We are grateful to continue these partnerships while also widening our reach to partner with more communities of adoptees and their families. Stories of adoption from a transnational adoptee perspective are rarely told on stages, and we are particularly thankful to Sun Mee for sharing this deeply personal narrative.

As we all know, theater also allows us to experience stories that are not our own and open our hearts and understanding in deep and meaningful ways by experiencing another person’s journey. That is why I love the play. It has given me a different understanding of experience that I did not have. And at the same time, there are aspects of the story that resonate as familiar. It is ultimately a piece about longing, what family means, and the transformative experiences that require us to reshape who we are in relationship to ourselves and our loved ones.

After last year’s run, we learned how important it was to hold space for conversation after the play. We have collaborated with Sun Mee and are offering post-show discussions after most of the performances. If you are here at a time when there isn’t a conversation, you are welcome to come back after any show to join a discussion.

This show's run falls during the Korean holiday of Chuseok. For those who are celebrating, I wish you a beautiful holiday. And for those preparing for Rosh Hashanah, I wish you a sweet New Year. Thank you for being here today, and I hope you enjoy the season ahead!

Sincerely, Hayley Finn, Artistic Director

From the Managing Director

Dear Friends of Theater J,

Welcome to Theater J's 2024-2025 season! Hayley has programmed an extraordinary line-up of plays that delve into the complexities of the human spirit and highlight the diversity, resilience, and joy of the Jewish experience, and we hope to see you back again and again over the next ten months to experience each of the productions.

Thank you to the many subscribers who have purchased their packages this season. Your support for our work is instrumental in ensuring that we can continue to bring artists and productions of the highest-quality to Theater J. We hope you will enjoy all the benefits of being a subscriber today and all season long like discounts on concessions and merchandise, fee-free exchanges if your plans change and you need to come to a different performance, and the free guest ticket, which I hope you will use to introduce a friend or neighbor to Theater J.

If you have not yet purchased a subscription to our 2024-2025 season, it is not too late. Pick up a form on your way out of the theater, visit TheaterJ.org, or call the ticket office at 202-777-3210, Monday-Friday 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Through the generous support of the Robert M. Fisher Memorial Foundation Theatre For Youth Fund, the Shapiro Family Foundation, and the Share Fund, Theater J will be offering hundreds of subsidized tickets to schools in DC, Maryland, and Virginia through our 2024-2025 student matinees. If you know an educator who would like to bring a classroom to Theater J, please have them email Hester@TheaterJ.org so that we can make arrangements. Thank you for helping us enhance educational opportunities for the youth in our region and for inspiring the next generation of theater-goers.

Wishing you a sweet and healthy new year full of theater!

Yours, David Lloyd Olson, Managing Director

How To Be a Korean Woman

Performed and Written by Sun Mee Chomet*

Direction and Dramaturgy by Zaraawar Mistry

September 12 – 22, 2024

Director

Zaraawar Mistry

Production Stage Manager

Anthony O. Bullock*

CAST (in alphabetical order)

Sun Mee Chomet as herself.

Scenic Designer

Nephelie Andonyadis+

Assistant Stage Manager

Shee Shee Jin

Lighting Designer Jesse Belsky+

How to Be a Korean Woman runs approximately 85 minutes with no intermission. The video or audio recording of this performance by any means is strictly prohibited.

*Appearing through an Agreement between this theater, Theater J, and Actors' Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States

+Member of United Scenic Artists Local 829

Actors’ Equity Association (AEA) was founded in 1913 as the first of the American actor unions. Equity’s mission is to advance, promote and foster the art of live theatre as an essential component of our society. Today, Equity represents more than 40,000 actors, singers, dancers and stage managers working in hundreds of theatres across the United States. Equity members are dedicated to working in the theatre as a profession, upholding the highest artistic standards. Equity negotiates wages and working conditions and provides a wide range of benefits including health and pension plans for its members. Through its agreement with Equity, this theatre has committed to the fair treatment of the actors and stage managers employed in this production. AEA is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. For more information, visit www.actorsequity.org.

From the Playwright

Take a fun, informative deep dive into How To Be a Korean Woman with interviews, recipes, and other resources. To

This was not an easy piece to write. Before I wrote How To Be a Korean Woman twelve years ago, I was at a standstill. I had to stop acting in other plays because I no longer knew who I was inside. As an actor, I find it is essential to know yourself deeply in order to serve other characters. After I searched for my birth family, my world turned upside down.

I recently heard an interview with a Holocaust survivor who said, “When we were forced out and came to the United States, we held tightly to our identity because it was all we had left.” This resonated deeply with me as an adoptee. Understanding oneself and knowing where one’s people have come from shape one’s core and ground one’s soul. I am grateful to have been adopted by a Jewish family where it was understood what it meant to be discriminated against and to persevere. When my own identity was shaken after my search for my birth family, I existed in a family that held compassion and care for my own unique life journey.

Performing How To Be a Korean Woman has been a healing experience. Not only because it has helped integrate my identity into wholeness again, but because it has been instrumental in the life journeys of many other adoptees. For example, I’ve met next generation Chinese adoptees who have written their own one-person plays, I’ve been interviewed by PhD candidates writing dissertations about transracial adoptee performances, and I’ve created community with adoptees far and wide who wrestle with the same questions. The load is lighter when carried together.

I am grateful to Hayley and David for inviting me back to Theater J for this encore performance. I have often felt like an outsider regarding my Jewish identity. People question whether I belong, regardless of my own internal compass. Thank you for embracing this story and expanding the world’s understanding of the complexity of the Jewish diaspora.

Special thanks to Tricia Anderson, Chana Bilek, Melissa Corkum, Kim Gube, A.D. Herzel, and Alice Stephens.

Sun Mee Chomet* In the US, Sun Mee has worked with The Public Theater, Lincoln Center Theater’s LCT3, Alliance Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Hartford Stage, Cincinnati Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theater of St. Louis, Kansas City Repertory, Guthrie Theater, Penumbra Theatre, Ten Thousand Things Theater, Mixed Blood Theatre, Pillsbury House Theatre, Jungle Theater, Theater Mu, Park Square Theatre, and many more. Internationally, Sun Mee performed her awardwinning one-woman show, How to Be a Korean Woman at Post Theater in Seoul, S. Korea. Sun Mee’s recognition includes a 2022 Suzi Bass Award for Bina’s Six Apples, 2019 and 2013 Playwrights’ Center McKnight Theater Artist Fellowships, 2019 Decades Acting Awards (Minneapolis Star Tribune & City Pages for Vietgone and Two Mile Hollow), 2015 Lucille Lortel nomination (brownsville song), 2013 TCG Fox Fellowship, Star Tribune’s ‘Best of’ lists for The Origin(s) Project (2012) and Asiamnesia (2007); “2012 Best Solo Performance” honors for her play, How to Be a Korean Woman (Lavender Magazine). She would like to thank Hayley Finn and the entire staff of Theater J for the invitation, thus expanding the reach of the Jewish diaspora. She would also like to thank the incredible KAD, adoptee, and BIPOC communities in D.C. for helping to spread the word.

Zaraawar Mistry (Director and Dramaturg) Born in India, Zaraawar Mistry is an actor, writer, director, teacher and producer in the Twin Cities. He was a co-founder of the Center for Independent Artists and an Associate Artistic Director at Theater Mu. As an actor he has performed at the Guthrie, the Children’s Theater Company and Mixed Blood Theater. He has collaborated as an actor, writer and director with Ragamala Dance. Zaraawar has written and performed in several one man plays, and mentored over a dozen actors, musicians and puppeteers in developing and producing their solo works. Zaraawar has an M.F.A. in Theatre from UC, San Diego and a B.A. from Bennington College in Vermont. He has received numerous grants in support of his work, from the Jerome Foundation, the Minnesota State Arts Board and the Playwright’s Center among others. He has taught theater classes in the Twin Cities, and has been the Interim Program Director for the City Arts program at H.E.C.U.A. He was also an Adjunct Professor at Hamline University in 2007, and was a Mentoring Artist for the COMPAS ArtsWork program from 2010-2014. Zaraawar is a theater consultant and works as the Program Specialist for Springboard for the Arts.

Nephelie Andonyadis+ (Scenic Designer) is a scenic and costume designer based, mostly, in Washington DC. Designs at Theater J include Moses, Compulsion or The House Behind, Occupant and Fires in the Mirror. Designs locally include Topdog/Underdog (WSC Avant Bard, Helen Hayes Award), The Children (Studio Theatre), Pilgrims Musa and Sheri… (Mosaic Theater) and The Juliet Letters (UrbanArias). Regional projects include The Most Beautiful Home…Maybe (Mixed Blood Theatre, Minneapolis), The Rivers Don’t Know (City Theatre, Pittsburgh), Seize the King (Alliance Theatre), As You Like It & The Odyssey (Public Works/ Seattle Rep), The Tempest (Pittsburgh Public Theater). With Cornerstone Theater Company, where she is an ensemble member, designs include scenery, props, costumes and/or puppets for community based productions Wicoun (touring native communities in South Dakota), A Jordan Downs Illumination, Magic Fruit, Jason in Eureka, Los Illegals, Café Vida and more. Her designs have been seen at South Coast Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, PlayMakers Repertory Company, Center Theater Group, among others. Professor at the University of Michigan, and the University of Redlands, BS, Cornell University School of Architecture, MFA, Yale School of Drama, NEA/TCG Design Fellowship, MS in Aging and Health, Georgetown University; Nephelie works at the intersection of community, arts and policy to help change the culture of care for all older adults.

Jesse Belsky+ (Lighting Designer) is delighted to be back at Theater J after designing See You Tomorrow, Moses, One Jewish Boy, Compulsion, Edward Albee's OCCUPANT, Actually, Talley’s Folley and Everything Is Illuminated. Other recent D.C. designs include Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf at Ford’s Theater, The Year of Magical Thinking and JQA at Arena Stage, Sweeney Todd & The Mystery of Love & Sex at Signature, Henry 4 P1 and A Winter’s Tale at Folger, The Music Man at OTC, John Proctor Is The Villain at Studio Theatre and Oslo at Round House. Regional credits include work at Actor’s Theater Louisville, Portland Center Stage, Syracuse Stage, Yale Repertory Theater, Triad Stage and Playmakers Repertory Theater. Mr. Belsky holds a BA from Duke University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama and has taught lighting design at Connecticut College and UNC Greensboro. Member, USA 829. jessebelsky.com.

Anthony O. Bullock* (Production Stage Manager) Theater J: The Hatmaker’s Wife, Hester Street, This Much I Know, Moses, The Chameleon, One Jewish Boy, Gloria: A Life, Two Jews Walk into a War…, Intimate Apparel, Nathan the Wise, Compulsion or the House Behind, Tuesdays with Morrie, The Wanderers, Sheltered, Occupant, Love Sick, The Jewish Queen Lear, and Actually. DC: Red Velvet, Our Town (Shakespeare Theatre Company); The Pajama Game (Arena Stage); SOUL: The Stax Musical, Twisted Melodies (Baltimore Center Stage); Billy Elliot (Signature Theatre); The Children, The Hard Problem, Cloud 9, Hedda Gabler, Moment, Between Riverside and Crazy, Chimerica, Jumpers for Goalposts, Laugh (Studio Theatre). NYC: The School for Lies (Classic Stage Company) and workshops with Project Springboard: Developing Dance Musicals. Other regional credits include Barrington Stage Company, Williamstown Theatre Festival, McCarter Theatre, TheatreSquared, among others. BFA from Oklahoma City University. Proud member of AEA.

Hayley Finn (Theater J Artistic Director) is an accomplished director and producer with over twenty-five years of experience in professional theater across all aspects of the profession, including producing, directing, casting, education, fundraising, and has been instrumental in creating national partnerships for theaters across the country. Prior to joining Theater J, she was the Associate Artistic Director at the Playwrights’ Center, where she worked with some of the nation’s leading playwrights and in her tenure produced over 1,000 workshops. She also served as a Co-Artistic Director of Red Eye Theater from 2019-2023 where she co-produced and curated the New Works 4 Weeks Festival—an annual four-week festival that commissions 11 artists each year to make new performance works—and co-led the fundraising and development of a new 150-seat black box theater in Minneapolis.

She has directed nationally and internationally, including at Cherry Lane Theatre (New York, NY), Curious Theatre Company (Denver, CO), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Edinburgh, Scotland), Ellis Island (New York), Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis, MN), HERE Arts Center (New York, NY), History Theatre (St. Paul, MN), Flea Theater (New York, NY), The Kitchen (New York, NY), LAByrinth Theater Company (New York, NY), Marin Theater Company (Mill Valley, CA), New Dramatists (New York, NY), O’Neill Theater Center (Waterford, CT), Pillsbury House (Minneapolis, MN), People’s Light (Malvern, PA), Public Theater (New York, NY), Playwrights’ Horizons (New York, NY), Red Eye Theater (Minneapolis, MN), Six Points Theater (St. Paul, MN), South Coast Repertory Theater (Costa Mesa, CA), and the Nine Gates Festival in Prague. Finn was Assistant Director on several Broadway productions, including the Tony Award-winning production of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge.

Finn is an alumna of the Drama League Director’s Program, a recipient of the Ruth Easton Fellowship, TCG Future Leader Grant, National Endowment for the Arts support, and a Minnesota State Arts Board Artist Initiative Grant. She received her BA and MA from Brown University.

David Lloyd Olson (Theater J Managing Director) made his stage debut at age five at the Marcus JCC of Atlanta preschool and is now proud to be one of the leaders of the nation’s largest professional Jewish theater. He most recently served as managing director of Quintessence Theatre Group in Philadelphia where he oversaw the organization’s largest ever fundraising campaign and the doubling of their annual foundation support. He was manager of the executive office and board engagement at the Shakespeare Theatre Company where he supported the transition of the theater’s artistic directorship from Michael Kahn to Simon Godwin. He has also held positions at Arena Stage, GALA Hispanic Theatre, the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and Pointless Theatre. He was an Allen Lee Hughes management fellow at Arena Stage, a Fulbright English teaching assistant in Valmiera, Latvia, and the recipient of two DC Commission on Arts and Humanities Fellowship program grants. He proudly serves on the board of the Alliance for Jewish Theatre (alljewishtheatre.org) and the board of Adas Israel Congregation.

THE MOST INFLUENTIAL JEWISH THEATER COMPANY IN THE NATION. - The Washington Post

Theater J is a nationally-renowned, professional theater that celebrates, explores, and struggles with the complexities and nuances of both the Jewish experience and the universal human condition. Our work illuminates and examines ethical questions of our time, intercultural experiences that parallel our own, and the changing landscape of Jewish identities.

As the nation’s largest and most prominent Jewish theater, we aim to preserve and expand a rich Jewish theatrical tradition and to create community and commonality through theater-going experiences.

The Edlavitch DCJCC embraces inclusion in all its programs and activities. We welcome and encourage the participation of all people, regardless of their background, sexual orientation, abilities, or religion, including interfaith couples and families.

All of the programs at the Edlavitch DCJCC are supported in part by a generous gift from the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington.

EDLAVITCH DCJCC LEADERSHIP

Edlavitch DCJCC

Chief Executive Officer: Jennifer Zwilling

Chief Finance and Administrative Officer: Charlie Winters

Chief Experience Officer: Jesse Bordwin

Senior Director of Institutional Advancement: Emily Jillson

THEATER J STAFF

Artistic Director: Hayley Finn

Managing Director: David Lloyd Olson

Production

Production Manager: Mark T. Berry

Technical Director: Tom Howley

Associate Producer: Charlotte La Nasa

Technical Coordinator: Willow McFatter

Company Management Associate: Grace Carter

Head Electrician: Garth Dolan

Resident Properties Artisan: Pamela Weiner

External Affairs

Arts Marketing Manager: Jill Gershenson

Director of Patron Experience: Jasmine Jones

Development Executive Assistant Ryan Muha

Ticket Office and Front of House Manager: Nino Porter

Assistant Ticket Office Manager: Lauren McNeal

Marketing Consultants: Rachel Hewitt, Adriana Cisneros Emerson, and Jasmine Jones, Rachel Media Publicist: Kendra Rubinfeld and Travis Hare, Kendra Rubinfeld PR

Graphic Design: Molly Winston

House Managers and Ticket Office Associates: Sophia Bonde, Steve Chazanow, Emily Eason, Lily Goldberg, Sarah Moosadzeh, Robert Reeg, Hadiya Rice, Kaneeka Rice, Sam Rollin, and MaryMargaret Walsh

Education & New Play Development

Education Programs Manager: Hester Kamin

Expanding the Canon Rosh Beit: Sabrina Sojourner

Expanding the Canon Commissioned Writers: Harley Elias, Zachariah Ezer, Carolivia Herron, Jesse Jae Hoon, MJ Kang, and Kendell Pinkney

Teaching Artists: Jen Jacobs, James Carlos Lacey, Tori Niemiec, Aaron Posner, Lynette Talya Rathnam, Sharyn Rothstein, Howard Shalwitz, Holly Twyford, and Erin Weaver

Founding Artistic Director: Martin Blank

How To Be A Korean Woman Staff

Electricians: Garth Dolan, Rex Hsu, Michael House, David Ramsey

Load-in Crew: Matty Griffiths, David Higgins, Tad Howley, Willow McFatter, Taylor Stewart, Von Riley

Sound and Projections Operator: Quincy Fuller

Follow Spot Operator: Megan Amos

Light Programmer: Ben Harvey

Audio/Video Engineer: Kaitlyn Sapp

Set pieces painted by: Kao Lee Thao

Additional sound designer/engineering: Peter Morrow

Dialect coach: Bomi Yoon

Promo video: Bo Hakala

Video editing: Jason Ho

Additional video editing: Jason Hoffmann

Company Management Associate: Grace Carter

Special thanks: Sonya Weisburd, Jacob Ettkin

2024–2025 THEATER J COUNCIL

Mara Bralove, Chair

Mindy Gasthalter

Ann Gilbert

Cheryl Gorelick

Rae Grad

Patti Herman

Aimee Imundo

Daniel Kaplan

Arlene Klepper

Liz Kleinrock

Kenneth Krupsky

Stephen Lachter

Karen Lehmann-Eisner

Ellen Malasky

Meredith Margolis

Howard Menaker

Alfred Munzer

Sherry Nevins

Patricia Payne

Theater J Honorary Council

Patty Abramson*

Michele G. Berman

Bunny Dwin

Lois Fingerhut

Marion Ein Lewin

Paul J. Mason

Evelyn Sandground

Hank Schlosberg*

Saul Pilchen

Bella Rosenberg

Mita M. Schaffer

Robert Schlossberg

Terry Singer

Stuart Sotsky

Manny Strauss

Bob Tracy

Kathryn Veal

Trish Vradenburg*

Patti Sowalsky

Joan S. Wessel

Irene Wurtzel

EDLAVITCH DCJCC 2024–2025 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Johanna Chanin, President

Eva Davis, Vice President

Meredith Margolis, Vice President

Janis Schiff, Vice President

Janet B. Abrams

Olufunmike Adeyemi

Andrew Altman

Joan Berman

Michele G. Berman

Jordan Lloyd Bookey

Jennifer Bradley

Jaclyn Lerner Cohen

Sara Cohen

Eva Davis

Jonathan Edelman

Myrna Fawcett

Meg Flax

Brian Gelfand

FOUNDING DIRECTOR

Ginny Edlavitch

DIRECTORS EMERITI

Stephen Altman

Rose H. Cohen

Jill Granader

Martha Winter Gross

Daniel O. Hirsch

Jonathan Grossman, Treasurer

Amie Perl, Assistant Treasurer

Benjamin Loewy, Secretary

Daniel Glickman

Dina Gold

Debra Goldberg

David Goldblatt

Rena Gordon

Brad Lackey

Joshua Maxey

Alyssa Moskovitz

Sid Moskowitz

Alfred Munzer

Alyson Myers

Melanie Franco Nussdorf

Amie Perl

Arnold Polinger

Shannon Powers

Norm Rich

Ilene Rosenthal

Michael Salzberg

Max Sandler

Rhea Schwartz

Michael Singer

Tina Small

Mimi Tygier

Diane Abelman Wattenberg

Jessika Wellisch

Eric Zelenko

Jennifer Zwilling, Chief Executive Officer, Ex Officio

Stephen Kelin

William Kreisberg

Saul Pilchen

John R. Risher Jr.*

Lynn Skolnick Sachs

VICE PRESIDENT EMERITUS

Lee G. Rubenstein

HONORARY DIRECTOR

Barbara Abramowitz

Deborah Ratner Salzberg

Mindy Strelitz

Francine Zorn Trachtenberg

Robert Tracy

Ellen G. Witman

Theater J, as part of the Edlavitch DCJCC, embraces inclusion in all of its programs and activities. Theater J strives to make our productions accessible to all by providing the following to meet the needs of our patrons, and to enhance their experience at the theater.

For more information, please contact our Director of Patron Experience at 202.777.3268 or contact our ticket office at theaterj@theaterj.org

Accessible Seating

The Edlavitch DCJCC has ramp access from the Q Street entrance and all our restrooms are ADA accessible. In the Goldman Theater, removable seats provide patrons with the opportunity to be seated with their companions while sitting in their wheelchair.

Assistive Listening

Assistive listening devices are available at our Ticket Office. They are free-ofcharge and offered on a first-come, first-served basis at all performances.

Open Captioning

We are now partnering with Verbit AI to offer live captions at any performance. You will be able to use the Verbit AI QR code or one of our tablets provided at the ticket office. Please call 48 hours in advance of your performance to confirm live caption accommodation. Captioning sponsored by Dianne and Herb Lerner

Large Print Programs

Large print programs are available at our Ticket Office, located on the first floor. Or read a low vision digital program on your mobile device by scanning the QR code outside the theater.

Theater J respects and welcomes gender diversity. Please use the restroom which makes you most comfortable or most closely fits your gender identity or expression. An all-gender restroom is located on the Lower Level.

ANTI-DISCRIMINATION

Theater J and the Edlavitch DCJCC commit to being an inclusive, safe, and welcoming space for all. This institution does not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on race, color, religion (creed), gender, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status, in any of its activities or operations from either patrons or staff. Please visit our website at theaterj.org to learn more about our policies and procedures

Land Acknowledgement

Our building sits on the traditional homeland of the Nacotchtank (Anacostan), farmers and traders who lived along the banks of the Anacostia River. Beginning in 1608, European settlers decimated the Nacotchtank with disease, warfare, and forced removal. By the 1700s, the survivors fled to join other tribes to the north, south, and west, including the Piscataway Peoples, who continue to steward these lands from generation to generation. We know this acknowledgement is only a small step towards justice, and we ask that all of us learn about the past and present and invest in the future of our country’s Indigenous communities wherever we are.